Janice Yaden
Since 1999, Janice has worked for Mercy Corps overseeing and managing projects outside the USA. Her first assignment was Country Director in Turkey for 14 months where she implemented an ECHO grant to alleviate the problems faced by a large-scale devastating earthquake. Since then, she has worked in various short and long-term assignments as Country Director, Chief of Party and Project Manager in 13 different countries.
March 28 – May 5, 2016. Country Director TDY Mongolia. Focus was on completing a short- term relief project for herders and developing a process to program a $10 million, five year program funded by USAID. Managed donor and governmental relations.
May 2015. Four-week Country Director TDY, Central African Republic. Supported staff in proposal drafting, helped vet ex-pat recruitments, managed donor relations and helped strengthen the office support systems.
April –June 2014. Program Manager and Support, Mongolia. Supported and mentored national staff in developing good governance programming as well as support services such as HR, staff development planning and strategic thinking.
October-December 2013. Chief of Party, Kosovo. Oversaw two major programs: USAID conflict mitigation/reconciliation program in North Mitrovice, Kosovo and an EU Roma resettlement program in South Mitrovice. Helped transition to new COP.
September-November 2012. TDY (COP) in Turkey. Facilitated the startup of programs focusing on internally displaced Syrians.
February-June 2012. Acting Country Director, Colombia. Oversaw 12 projects located around the country ranging from relief from floods to support for ex-combatant child soldiers.
August-September 2011. Program Manager, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Managed a relief operation for tsunami in Mentawai Islands and worked on wrapping up the risk reduction program as well as supporting a new water project.
March-June 2011. TDY Kashmir, India. Support to Mercy Corps office as they expanded programming. Provided consultation on management issues such as HR, logistics, programming,
April-July 2010. TDY in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Assisted program manager start a risk reduction training program and covered for her during her home leave.
August 2008-June 2009. Regional Program Manager, Hambantota, Sri Lanka
Managed the final phase of a large sanitation/tourism/livelihoods program in South Sri Lanka. Closed out regional office.
August 2007–March 2008. Regional Program Manager, Lebanon.
Oversaw construction and agriculture projects in the Bekaa Valley and South Lebanon. Program brought olive oil producers, bee keepers and forage crop farmers together from three separate confessional communities (Shia Moslem, Druze and Catholic Christian) to form marketing associations and lend one another support.
February–March 2007. Acting Regional Program Manager, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. Short-term assignment when national office manager left due to threats on his life. This was a sensitive geographical area in the Tamil Tiger conflict. Began the implementation of construction projects and located a manager who had the backing of the community but, still acceptable to the government officials in the area.
September 2006–January 2007, Country Director, North Sudan Managed North Sudan operations which included Darfur and two major projects in South Sudan. Mercy Corps operated several projects out of four offices in Darfur. In South Sudan, Mercy Corps was also in charge of two complex development projects aimed at getting that war-torn region
back on its feet. These projects required very complex political work as there were so many differing groups all vying for power and whose loyalties changed constantly.
October 2005-March 2006 Regional Program Director, Ampara, Sri Lanka.
Oversaw program operations for victims of 2004 tsunami. Programs centered on livelihood replacement and toilet construction in camps as well as 13, long-term community projects. This assignment required sensitivity to the conflicts underway among the three ethnic groups: Tamil, Sinhalese and Moslem, each under pressure to ensure fairness for their community.
October 2004–March 2005 COP/Program Director, Bam, Iran.
Managed final phase of one year earthquake relief and reconstruction effort. Oversaw completion of projects funded by eight grants totaling nearly $2 million and shut down of office.
September 2003–February 2004 Area Coordinator, Northeast Afghanistan.
Responsible for implementing two major grants in agriculture and education (approximately $2 million) in the Takhar/Kunduz region of NE Afghanistan. This required a lot of understanding of the local culture and politics. The population had experienced conflict resulting in numerous animosities in the communities.
April-August 2002. Director of Program Operations, Pakistan. Oversaw Pakistan and Kandahar, Afghanistan, operations from Quetta, Pakistan. Budget for the six programs implemented in the Quetta/Chaman area was $3 million with approximately 230 full- time employees. Programs focused on healthcare and water/sanitation. This area is well-known for inter-tribal conflict.
October 1999-November 2000. Country Director, Turkey. Responsible for implementation of $1 million ECHO grant following the 1999 earthquakes in
Western Turkey. Work included building and managing centers for displaced youth and women and mobile health units for the camps, training for future disasters, implementing hygiene and educational programs.
Prior to employment with Mercy Corps, Janice worked primarily in health and
children’s policy development for Congress and the State of Oregon.